The Bright, Beautiful, Sun.

Kanae came back from her quick flashback, her emotions flourishing.

And during Kanae's quick flashback, Kiyomi was bored out of her mind, and so she went to the small pond in the corner of the courtyard to play with the fish that were swimming in the water.

*Splash*

With a big splash of the water and a swift shadow grabbing the fish, Kiyomi pulled out a medium-sized koi.

"Hahahaha! Hey Kanae! Look! I caught a fish!"

"Eh?"

Kanae had stood in place looking at the empty air while being fried by the sun for so long that she inevitably felt a little dizzy once she tried to walk towards Kiyomi.

"Eek!!!"

Tripping on a small piece of rock, Kanae managed to stabilize herself by taking a step forward and squatting down while balancing herself using her two arms.

Before being able to wipe the sweat off of her head, she felt something poking her hair.

Looking up, she witnessed the most cutest thing she had ever seen in her entire life.

"..."

Kiyomi, sucking on the fish in her mouth to keep it falling like a cat, constantly poked Kanae's soft hair.

Her lovely and innocent eyes agitated Kanae's love for cuteness.

Another weird habit she had developed when eating was that her ears would inevitably come out whenever she eats fish, as it is the only time when she feels completely relaxed while awake.

Her ears twitching, Kiyomi saw that Kanae was fine and walked to find a place to enjoy her lunch.

Realizing that she still needed to stop Kiyomi from eating the fish, Kanae immediately followed.

"Wait! Kiyomi, stop! You can't eat that fish! That's the master's koi!"

Stopping and turning around, Kiyomi saw Kanae running towards her.

Taking the already half-eaten fish from her mouth with her thumb and index finger, she asked with droplets of blood dripping from her lips:

"Why? I've already eaten it anyways."

Suddenly, another wave of dizziness hit Kanae's head, this time even harder. Her vision of Kiyomi split into two as her ears suddenly heard a very high-pitched ringing sound.

Her orientation of the directions also fell apart and she stumbled to stabilize her body.

"Woah~ Trippy!"

Kanae said as her body spun around and around, feeling a very heavy sense of euphoria for no reason.

Kiyomi just watched as Kanae seemed to have fallen into a deep illusion.

Scratching her head and then shrugging it off, Kiyomi finished the rest of the koi in her hand.

The f1sh's spirit: 'No~!!! Why me!! I only- ARGHAHH!!!'

*Slurp~*

Kiyomi licked the blood on her fingers as to not waste any food.

"Hm.. that koi tasted weird..."

Looking at the spinning Kanae and then at the fish bones, Kiyomi muttered: "Well... today's a weird day."

Walking up to the hallucinating Kanae, Kiyomi hugged Kanae's neck from her back.

"Uhhh!! Thank you! I feel like I'm going to vomit~" said Kanae as her eyes constantly moved from one spot to another, still feeling mildly dizzy.

"Mmm~ yeah. Anyways, when is Ubuyashiki going to meet us? It's been like forever!"

A little embarrassed that she had to let Kiyomi wait for so long, Kanae somewhat reluctantly got rid of Kiyomi's arms on her neck as she walked to see if Ubuyashiki was delayed.

"Sorry... I'll go check right now!"

Using her hands to balance herself as to prevent her from stumbling again, Kanae cutely waddled towards the porch.

"Uhmmm..... okay.. I'll... just... practice I guess.."

'Status'

========================================================

<> Kamado Kiyomi <>

Age: 14 | Gender: Female | Birthdate: September 12

Talents: Marechi (Suppressed), Demon Slayer Mark, Accelerated Learning, Rapid Regeneration, Hybrid Talents(Long Life, Improved Strength/etc, etc)

Race: Hybrid (Demon/Kitsune/Human)

-

Skills:

Total Concentration Breathing - Advanced (Lvl 10: 575,280/1,000,000)

Unnamed Auxiliary Breathing - Proficient (Lvl 7: 6,996/7,000)

Breath of the Moon - Advanced (Lvl 4: 27,986/40,000)

Blood Demon Art(s) - Advanced (Lvl 1: 5,240/10,000)

Swordsmanship - Advanced (Lvl 3: 4,484/30,000)

[...]

-

Specific Body Stats:

Height: Illusion(5'4")/True(5'1") | Weight: Changable

Hair color: Light Chestnut | Eye color: Amethyst

========================================================

Looking at her barely noticeably changed status page, Kiyomi was slightly dissatisfied.

After all, such little improvement in nine years just wasn't good enough for her.

It wasn't that she didn't work hard enough, but the lack of new skills daunted her enthusiasm to work hard, so she spent most of her practice time with her family.

After all, once you reach a specific realm in a certain skill, there would be a barrier, and the harder you work, the more you realize that persistence and hard work just won't cut it.

And it wasn't really the increase in the rank of the skill that dissatisfied her, it was the ability to gain and learn new skills that did.

"But at least I'll be able to focus on just a few skills that really are important."

Taking a huge sigh, Kiyomi threw the dissatisfied thought out the window and looked at the bright side of things.

'And anyway, almost all of my skills are in the advanced rank now. And the proficiency of my demon blood art really skyrocketed huh... most probably because of the ritual I do every year.'

Remembering the rituals that had already purified most of the negative effects of being a demon, Kiyomi abruptly had an incredible idea.

Slowly reaching up towards her mask, she touched the smooth surface of her Kitsune mask.

Closing her eyes, Kiyomi first spoke to the mask that had accompanied her on her head for years.

"Miyu?"

"...." Nothing replied.

'Still sleeping huh..'

During the nine years that Miyu the mask had accompanied Kiyomi, it had given her a lot of life advice.

And it had already become one of Kiyomi's best friends.

Smiling weirdly, Kiyomi swiftly took off the mask from her head in one swift motion after closing her eyes in fear.

...

One second.

Two seconds.

Slowly opening her eyes, Kiyomi looked into the bright, blue sky.

Feeling the warmth on her face, Kiyomi touched her face in disbelief and big droplets of tears flowed down from her cheeks.

During the nine years of standing under the sunlight, Kiyomi had never once felt the sunlight's warmth.

It was like being excluded from the sun.

She only found out that this was the side effect of being able to stand in the sun as a demon.

And this was the fact that there would always be this weird feeling of a layer of thin, slimy, and icy blanket covering her skin, making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

She had taken a guess that this was one of the ways that the world consciousness restricted demons.

If she was also a human flesh-eating demon, perhaps there would've been even harsher restrictions.

But luckily, the system gave her the ability to eat fish to regain her energy and keep her bodily functions going.

Smiling while still crying, Kiyomi looked near the sun while running both of her breathing techniques as if to welcome the sun's warm embrace.

...

Cherishing something that others don't is something that only you will understand.

Only after experience the loss of something would you cherish that even more.

But sometimes, you only get one chance.

So. Cherish what you have now. Cherish what you would want best for your descendants. Cherish the environment, the sun, and even the tiniest thing in your life.

Because one day, you never know when you might just lose the thing you want to cherish.

Be grateful. Be happy. Don't waste your life. Be optimistic. You can do it. Life isn't just a dream. There is always a hidden side within everything.

Even when things seem down... Even if you beat yourself over something... Get back up.

You might say that you can't do it, but inside, you know you can.

You are just so used to beating your self-confidence into a pulp that you won't even recognize the courage you had when you were a child.

Even if you seem to have no talent, try. Try. Try it.

Ashamed? Embarrassed? Scared? Why?

Why are you ashamed of yourself?

Why are you embarrassed because you messed up?

Why are you scared of the future?

As long as you reach your goal, why should you care about what others think?

Why do you want to impress them?

You are doing everything for yourself.

YOURSELF!

Yourself...

So... work hard. For a brighter future. For a brighter world. For a brighter you!

Because if you work hard and never give up... the bright and beautiful sun will still be waiting for you at the end of the road.

Warm and joyful.

Some might say that they had already heard everything that I wrote in this small section.

And even though they felt inspired for a few days, they would go back to their original self very soon.

True, it is very hard to change bad habits. But it is also very hard to collect good habits.

...

I have a weird talent.

Wanna know what it is?

I can imagine vivid things.

Like... really vivid things.

I really like to imagine myself being really successful and I usually dream of these as I go to sleep.

But afterward, I like destroying these dreams by dreaming of the complete opposite.

Cold, Lonely, Poor, Unskilled.

I cry sometimes when I do that.

But afterward, I feel really nice.

Why?

Because it gives me a true sense of reality.

This is reality.

Nothing is free.

Something is sacrificed for everything you gain.

And I'll go back to working just a little harder at the start of the day.